This quote aptly described MMA’s immediate future, or at least it seemed to until very recently. Card quality, fan interest, and–most importantly–numbers were all declining; 2014′s PPV buy ceiling of 350,000 was 2009′s floor. MMA was headed for a perplexing time when it was simultaneously bigger than ever but smaller than ever, when the fighters were more talented than ever but less popular than ever.

A series of fortunate events and new found circumstances can change all that. To make a Back to the Future reference, the horrific, Biff Tannen-owned Hill Valley that represented MMA’s future may well become the nice, stable Hill Valley in which George McFly is a successful fiction author and Marty McFly bangs his girlfriend in the back of a pickup truck. That is to say, MMA might be approaching a level of popularity, constancy and quality that many (including myself) didn’t think it was capable of reaching in the current climate.

MMA is the ultimate “nice guys finish last” sport. It’s called prize fighting for a reason, and “I respect him; he’s a great opponent” doesn’t sell.

This is no secret. Just look at how Chael Sonnen—a perennial mid-carder who nobody knew or cared about—resurrected his career with carefully executed, bombastic trash talk.

Why am I telling you this if it’s common sense? Because it’s only common sense to people who appreciate MMA for what it is—real-life pro wrestling. Unfortunately, most hardcore MMA fans (and some media members) refuse to see it this way. They either believe in a non-existent code of honor, or an even less corporeal competitive architecture. “It’s a sport,” they maintain. “It should be only about competition. Besides, who wouldn’t want to see the best fighters go at it, even if they have less charisma than a light bulb?” The answer to that question: Most of the country.

There’s a sport with no flash, no glitz, and none of the other maligned “entertainment” trappings of the UFC and the WWE. It’s called amateur wrestling, and nobody watches it. MMA turning into amateur wrestling hurts the fighters. If there’s no viewers, there’s no money. It’s crazy that people still need to be reminded of this, but selling the fight is equally as important as fighting the fight. To quote The Simpsons, “Every good scientist is half B.F. Skinner and half P.T. Barnum.”

If you don’t follow boxing, it’s possible that you’ve never even heard of Maidana. But of course, saying that Mayweather vs. Maidana isn’t worth watching because Maidana has little chance to win is like saying that Jon Jones vs. Glover Teixeira wasn’t worth watching because Teixeira had little chance to win. Floyd Mayweather (like Jones) is a rare, once-in-a-generation talent; you don’t tune in to see a competitive fight, you tune in to see a great artist at work.

Showtime has released a pair “All Access” videos in advance of the fight, and if you’re a fan of completely absurd shows of wealth — like, rich-oil-sheik-making-it-rain-type stuff — you really, really need to watch them. Mayweather earned “the biggest payday in sports history” for fighting Canelo Alvarez last year, and it seems like Mayweather won’t rest until he’s spent every cent of it. Fun fact: He has bought 88 luxury vehicles from Towbin Motorcars. Fun fact #2: He once invited Robin Leach over to the Big Boy Mansion just to do live narration of his wealth. That’s at the beginning of episode 2, after the jump. Crazy, man. Just crazy.

Friday we brought you the fourth and final episode of the Showtime documentary mini-series, Mayweather vs. Canelo: All Access yesterday but it occurred to us that some of you might not yet be caught up on the prior episodes so, here ya go. Get ready for the biggest boxing match of the year tonight by getting inside the lives and training camps of Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez.

Chances are, whomever you are rooting for, you’ll walk away from this doc series with some admiration for both men. Some of our favorite things that we learned about each fighter from All Access:

The private “Canelo” refuses to let his daughter be seen on television. Respect.

An emergency motion obtained by the Las Vegas Review-Journal shows Mayweather’s lawyers will ask Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Melissa Saragosa as early as today that the former Olympic bronze medal winner be allowed to serve the remainder of his sentence on house arrest.

The 35-year-old’s physical conditioning is deteriorating under the stress of being jailed at the Clark County Detention Center, and he is being held in “inhumane conditions,” lawyer Richard Wright said in the motion filed Monday.

The boxer is being segregated from the general population and confined to his cell 23 hours a day in a locked-down section populated by felony defendants, Wright said. And in the hour each day Mayweather is allowed in a recreation area, he is alone and unable to use training facilities.

Floyd Mayweather Jr. may be one of the richest prizefighters ever. But the unbeaten five-division champion who goes by the nickname “Money” is about to trade life in a posh five-bedroom Las Vegas home for almost three months in a cell about one-third the size of a small boxing ring…

As a high-profile inmate, police say Mayweather, 35, probably will serve most of his time in a small solo cell. There is floor space for sit-ups and push-ups. But Mayweather’s stint in the high-rise Clark County Detention Center is expected to limit his ability to train for another fight.

At least for the first week, Mayweather will be segregated for his protection from the other 3,200 inmates in the downtown Las Vegas facility, police Officer Bill Cassell said this week…

Not that Mayweather (42-0) and Cotto (37-2) aren’t capable of putting on a great show in their light-middleweight championship fight, May 5th in Las Vegas, but the boxing world is always transfixed by the best possible matchup. Mayweather vs. Pacquiao has headed that list for a long time.

The 31-year-old Cotto is the real deal and is capable of pushing Mayweather, 35, to the limit. An upset may be a real possibility. Not only does Cotto have sensational power, he is capable of launching a barrage with either hand.

The other factor working against Mayweather is that he may not respect Cotto as a fighter. You can tell that by the trash talk — of which there has been very little. The two fighters have been very respectful of each other and that’s very unusual for Mayweather. In one of the pre-fight press conferences, Mayweather spoke of his admiration for Cotto’s straight-forward and hard-hitting approach. He also used the opportunity to belittle Pacquiao, suggesting that he is barely paying attention to the opponent in front of him.

Manny Paquiao told reporters during a recent media scrum that Floyd Mayweather recently called him up and offered him a guaranteed $40 million purse, but said he wasn’t willing to share a cent of the pay-per-view cut.

“I spoke with Floyd on the phone. He called me on the weekend. I told him, ‘Let’s make the fight happen and I agree for 50/50 [on the pay-per-view] and whatever blood testing you want, as long as you agree for 50/50.’ And he said, ‘Let’s do this. I’ll give you this amount and no more pay-per-view for you,” Pac Man recalled with a chuckle. “After that, I gave it to my people [to handle]. He was very serious. It’s okay with me that he has a bigger guarantee and I have a smaller guarantee, but it’s 50/50 for the distribution of the pay-per-view.”

According to Paquiao’s manager, the final offer given to Mayweather was a $50 million guarantee for Manny and a 45-55 percent split of the pay-per-view revenue, but “Pretty Boy Floyd” just wasn’t having it.

The rise of New Yorks Knicks point guard Jeremy Lin has not come without a bit of racially motivated backlash amongst the sports world, for reasons that have yet to be determined. After using the phrase “chink in the armor” to describe the Knicks loss to the New Orleans Hornets, a remark that appeared to be aimed at Lin, ESPN fired the writer responsible and suspended MMA Live host Max Bretos for using the phrase during a live broadcast. Sports media personality Stephen A. Smith recently discussed the issue alongside Skip Bayless, and if you have an extra 10 minutes on your hand, we recommend you check out his take on everything from over-sensitivity to racism in general, as it really puts the whole debate into perspective.

Jeremy Lin is a good player but all the hype is because he’s Asian. Black players do what he does every night and don’t get the same praise.

Aside from drawing the backlash of his fans, the remark caught the attention of UFC President Dana White, who tore Floyd a new one during a recent episode of FUELTV’s “UFC Tonight,” the video of which awaits you after the jump.